Shows you don't want to miss this week - including the return of Michael McIntyre PLUS TRAILER

Stuart Chandler

Michael McIntyre’s Big Show returns to BBC One for the biggest series to date. Filmed in front of a live audience at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, the show is packed with celebrity guests, musical performances, stand-up comedy and surprises.

This week includes an amazing musical performance from Little Mix; Michael is in Merseyside for the hilarious Midnight Gameshow, This Morning presenter Holly Willoughby hands her phone over to Michael as she plays Send To All, and the return of Unexpected Star will see some of the most ambitious stunts to date.

Michael told us: “Everything about the new series is bigger and better than the last. Send to All is back, where I send some very silly texts to all the contacts in celebrities’ phones and we see what hilarious replies they get. Unexpected Star returns. So many people have nominated people for us to surprise that we have been able to pick some wonderful people. There’s a married couple, a pilot, the oldest Unexpected Star at 92-years-old and the youngest at 11-years-old.

“We are doing more-and-more elaborate things and it’s crazy the way we’re surprising people in the theatre. Last year, we turned the theatre into a hotel and the attention to detail was incredible.

“This series, we have an actual aeroplane fuselage on stage and the Unexpected Star, who is a pilot, sits in a seat and the front of the plane falls down for him to find himself in the middle of the stage.

Strictly in Blackpool!

“We’ve turned the theatre into a haunted house complete with a ghost train ride that travels through a set of doors straight on to the stage.

“We also turned the theatre in to a cinema and built an actual auditorium on the stage.

“All the Unexpected Stars have been incredibly shocked, but have brought the house down with their amazing performances!”

Strictly Come Dancing, BBC One, Saturday, 6.45pm

My Brilliant Friend on Sky Atlantic.

Strictly packs its bags and heads to Blackpool where, for one week only, the show is broadcast live from the world-famous Blackpool Tower Ballroom. Presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman welcome the eight remaining celebrities and their partners to the dancefloor.

My Brilliant Friend, Sky Atlantic & NOW TV, Monday, 9pm

Based on Elena Ferrante’s best-selling book of the same name, HBO’s lushly produced first foreign language miniseries hits Sky Atlantic. Set in a dangerous and fascinating Naples, the story follows the lives of two girls over six decades of their friendship.

Dynasties

In episode two, we follow the story of one of the world’s most celebrated yet endangered animals - Emperor Penguins.

In Atka Bay, Antarctica, thousands of Emperor Penguins emerge from the waves and march inland across the barren wastelands.

SEAL Team, Sky One & NOW TV, Tuesday, 9pm

Fantastic, action-packed series about an elite squad of US soldiers starring David Boreanaz. Get ready because this episode is a tense one. Still in Mumbai, Bravo team’s lives hang in the balance when a daring bid to save a group of US students ends in life-threatening injuries.

Inside The Foreign Office, BBC Two, Thursday, 9pm

We join the Europe Director Caroline Wilson (pictured) with Boris Johnson on their whistlestop tour from RAF Northolt to Lisbon and Paris. As diplomats prepare for the post-Brexit world, film-maker Michael Waldman eavesdrops on Foreign Office discussions around the globe.